Ice Cream Pints Don't Belong In The Recycling Bin — Until Now

Though it depends on where you live, most curbside programs in the U.S. do not accept ice cream pints—no matter how much they might resemble cardboard.

That's because in order to hold up in your freezer and keep ice cream from seeping into its packaging, pints are coated with a layer of polyethylene plastic. This moisture barrier makes the cartons more of a cardboard-plastic hybrid that's next to impossible to break down and reconstruct into new materials. And yet, a lot of people are still placing them in the blue bin.

Developing a fully recyclable paperboard that can withstand the chill of the freezer is surprisingly difficult. Even polyethylene plastics that are made from plant materials like sugar cane instead of petroleum will still not be accepted by most facilities. Proving a material is fully recyclable is also an expensive and time-consuming process.

"It has a water-based moisture barrier that is 100% plastic-free, and it is recyclable, compostable, and biodegradable as well," Sacred Serve founder Kailey Donewald says on a call to mbg. It took eight years for sustainable packaging company Delipac to create the material and prove that it can, indeed, be recycled curbside across the country, break down in a compost pile (in both a backyard and industrial facility) and biodegrade in soil or water without leaving environmental contaminants behind.

"We're super excited to finally have this fully sustainable version," says Donewald, whose new pints will be rolling out starting this week at Whole Foods Market in the Midwest, Erewhon Market on the West Coast, and online. You'll be able to spot them by their unique shape: lidless (to further cut down on packaging material) with fold-over sides a la Chinese takeout boxes.

One small company making this change won't solve the larger contamination issue. But the fact that they've done so could signal sweeter days ahead for the rest of the ice cream and food storage space in general. "It can be used across categories and across industries, absolutely," says Donewald of the recyclable paperboard material.